This issue contains the release of grape crush, beverage wine production and inventories of wine data for 2008-09.

If you have any comments about this product please contact Paul Sutcliffe by phone on: (08) 8237 7302 or alternatively email: p.sutcliffe@abs.gov.au.

ROUNDING

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY

GRAPES CRUSHED AND BEVERAGE WINE PRODUCTION

There were 1.73 million tonnes of grapes crushed in 2008-09, a decrease of 99 thousand tonnes (-5.4%) from last year.

There were 335 wine making businesses which crushed more than 50 tonnes of grapes this year. There were 172 winemakers that each crushed from 50 to 400 tonnes of grapes, producing a combined crush of 32 thousand tonnes. Of these smaller businesses, the 99 smallest winemakers accounted for only 0.6% of all grapes crushed and averaged 114 tonnes each. The 163 winemaking businesses that each crushed more than 400 tonnes of grapes crushed a total of 1.7 million tonnes (98.2% of the national total) of grapes. There were 13 winemakers that crushed more than 20,000 tonnes each, accounting for a total of 1.3 million tonnes of grapes or 73.2% of the total crush.

There were an estimated 1,183 million litres of beverage wine produced by winemakers that crushed more than 50 tonnes of grapes. This beverage wine production figure was 75 million litres (-5.9%) less than the total for 2007-08.

Red/rosť table wine made up 630 million litres (53.2%) of the estimated beverage wine produced in 2008-09. This was a decrease of 46 million litres (-6.8%) on the red/rosť table wine produced in the previous year. White table wine accounted for 542 million litres, a decrease of 26 million litres (-4.5%) on 2007-08.

TABLE 1: † Winemakers, Size of production - 2008-09

Grapes Crushed

Table Wine

Winemakers

Red

White

Total

Red

White

Total beverage wine produced

Size (tonnes crushed)

Number

tonnes

tonnes

tonnes

' 000 L

' 000 L

' 000 L

50 - 99

41

1 666

1 374

3 040

847

833

1 719

100 - 149

35

2 646

1 636

4 281

1 153

766

1 986

150 - 199

23

2 513

1 402

3 915

888

494

1 410

200 - 400

73

13 350

7 344

20 694

3 762

2 356

6 275

401 - 1,000

69

26 894

19 230

46 124

16 373

11 252

27 839

1,001 - 3,000

41

33 989

33 080

67 069

22 372

21 311

43 983

3,001 - 5,000

16

36 467

25 277

61 745

25 857

16 102

42 169

5,001 - 10,000

12

51 024

38 412

89 436

35 509

21 528

57 986

10,001 - 20,000

12

84 012

84 427

168 439

63 305

52 963

117 546

20,001 or more

13

660 656

607 108

1 267 764

459 663

414 133

881 710

Total

335

913 216

819 290

1 732 506

629 728

541 736

1 182 624

For those crushing more than 400 tonnes, there was a decrease of four million litres (-26.6%) for the production of fortified beverage wine and a decrease of 61 million litres (-5.0%) of unfortified beverage wine on 2007-08 figures. The production of distillation wine decreased by 1 million litres (-12.6%) in 2008-09.

TABLE 2: † Wine Production(a)

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

Type

'000 L

'000 L

'000 L

'000 L

' 000 L

Beverage wine

Fortified(b)

20 275

12 729

8 013

14 806

10 867

Unfortified

1 400 074

1 397 754

946 996

1 221 726

1 160 365

Total

1 420 348

1 410 483

955 009

1 236 532

1 171 233

Distillation wine(c)

13 479

19 305

6 962

8 245

7 208

Gross total wine

1 433 827

1 429 788

961 972

1 244 776

1 178 441

Net total wine(d)

1 430 129

1 426 346

960 662

1 243 055

1 176 347

(a) Production by winemakers who crush more than 400 tonnes of grapes annually

(b) Relates only to production from unfortified wine of the same vintage

(c) For manufacturing brandy and grape spirit. Includes wine obtained from marc

Inventories of Australian beverage wine held by winemakers (who crush more than 400 tonnes) increased this year to 1.92 billion litres at 30 June 2009. This was a 2.4% increase on last years end of financial year figure. Table wine inventories rose 2.3% to 1.7 billion litres as at 30 June 2009.

White table wine accounted for 680 million litres or 35.4% of the stock of total beverage wine stored by winemakers this year. Red/rosť table wine stocks of one billion litres still represented 54.2% of the beverage wine stock held by winemakers.

TABLE 3: Inventories of Australian Wine and Grape Juice Held by Winemakers(a)

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Inventories at 30 June

' 000 L

' 000 L

' 000 L

' 000 L

' 000 L

Beverage wine

Fortified wine

75 427

75 017

75 011

68 713

64 777

Sparkling wine

87 561

85 081

148 458

106 201

111 779

Carbonated

638

3 558

6 156

6 766

10 192

Flavoured (other wine products)(b)

4 909

8 950

5 214

11 505

13 765

Table Wine(c)

White

705 544

768 921

592 920

r662 817

680 396

Red and rosť

1 189 107

1 165 373

955 853

r1 021 873

1 042 430

Total

1 894 650

1 934 295

1 548 773

r1 684 690

1 722 826

Total Beverage wine

2 063 185

2 106 900

1 783 613

r1 877 876

1 923 338

Distillation wine

1 230

4 456

993

883

2 077

Unfermented grape juice

24 030

29 512

49 732

64 991

63 642

Concentrated must (single strength)

9 347

15 179

8 488

3 668

13 119

r revised

(a) Inventories from winemakers who crush more than 400 tonnes of grapes annually

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